The Exciting Whites meme is a photo of a selection of white wines in a shop labeled with a sign bearing the phrase, used for racial jokes. The gag found new life after two Philadelphia Eagles cornerbacks showed up for a game in matching t-shirts covered in Eagles players and emblazoned with the words "Exciting Whites."
The meme originated in 2021 and surged in popularity when Vice President Kamala Harris started looking for her 2024 running mate. While her dreams of occupying the White House may have been sidelined, the joke is ready to get back into the game.
Meme basics:
- Meme Creator: @DR0girl
- Meme Type: Reaction image
- First Appearance: Sept. 20, 2021
- Origin Source: Twitter
- Used to Convey: White people jokes
- Peak Popularity: Nov. 2024
What is the Exciting Whites meme?
The photo of the white wine selection with the sign reading "Exciting Whites" is often used either to comment on things like certain music genres being dominated or beloved by white people or to highlight standout white individuals in any pastime where you're more likely to find people of color.
Social media users typically pair the image with a simple text post describing an event such as Sweet Caroline coming on at a wedding. Others have used it as an exploitable meme by Photoshopping white people into the image or the photo itself into another meme.
Origins and spread
Know Your Meme cites the Twitter account @DR0girl as the first to use the wine shop photo as a joke, but the user has since set their account to private. According to the meme archive, they published the post on Sept. 20, 2021, with text reading, "When you and your friends see many jam band shows a year."
One post with one of the earliest dates that is still available for general viewing by @natebellcurve from Nov. 14 of that year comments, "When the #Succession theme song hits."
The meme saw minor spread on Twitter from there, often in the realm of sports, and a few examples also showed up on Reddit.
2024 election resurgence
After President Joe Biden suspended his reelection campaign on July 21, 2024, and endorsed Harris as his replacement, there was a massive surge in speculation around how the vice president would present herself to the voters. One of the first questions asked who her running mate would be, with many assuming she would have to choose a white guy.
On July 22, Threads user @jeanie.online posted the Exciting Whites meme edited to read, "Kamala Harris shopping for her VP." The post gained considerable spread on the newer social media site and reappeared on Twitter and Facebook soon after. People enjoyed it enough to cause a small resurgence of interest in the meme itself, though not compared to the November surge.
Philadelphia Eagles and Exciting Whites meme t-shirts
On Nov. 14, 2024, Philadelphia Eagles cornerbacks Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship arrived for their game against the Washington Commanders in identical t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Exciting Whites" over an image of their team as a clear reference to the meme.
Both players are white, and according to football experts, it's rare for a team to have one white cornerback. With DeJean as the primary and Blankenship as the secondary cornerback, sports fans have been making race-themed jokes ever since both were drafted by the Eagles.
Once the official Eagles Twitter account published a photo of the two grinning in their shirts, interest in the Exciting Whites meme exploded. After all, the average U.S. resident is more interested in sports than politics. Unfortunately.
Meme examples
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